Mullum’s ‘affordable housing’ plan over busy car park hits snag

Byron Council’s plan to build ‘affordable’ housing units above a public car park in Mullumbimby has hit a snag, with no community housing providers willing to accept its offer of a 49-year lease to run the project.

But Mayor Michael Lyon says he remains 100 per cent committed to the scheme.

Council has been working with the government-owned development corporation, Landcom, on the plan that would see 32 one-and-two-bedroom units built at 57 Station Street; land that is currently in use as a busy car park in the centre of town.

In August last year, Council and Landcom undertook a tender process in a bid to find a community housing provider (CHP) to deliver the project, offering potential applicants a 49-year lease on the property.

However, a report on the matter contained in the agenda to this week’s Council meeting shows that neither of the two CHPs that responded to the tender process were willing to accept this key condition.

Non-conforming tenders

Instead, the companies, Link Wentworth and Community Housing Ltd, both said Council would have to either sell or give them the land.

Council staff noted in the report that this was a significant departure from what Council had offered, rendering the two tenders ‘non-conforming’, and recommended that both be rejected,

‘While Landcom’s terms and conditions of the market process allowed for non-conforming tenders to be submitted, it is considered that the two submissions did not provide terms that would be acceptable to Council in their current form and would not warrant further evaluation,’ Council’s Director of Sustainable Environment and Economy, Shanon Burt, said in the report.

The evaluation committee for the tender process, made up of staff from Landcom and Council, has advised councillors that direct negotiations cannot occur with either of the tenderers and that it should ‘terminate the current market process’.

This is likely to hold up the progress of the project for a number of months, and potentially longer, and raises questions about the feasibility of the plan.

The committee has recommended to councillors that they go back to the market with an offer of a 99-year lease in the hope that this might attract more suitable applications.

Some see this as a contentious move because it is extremely unlikely that the land in question would ever return to public hands once a private company was given access for the next century.

‘The longer the lease, the nearer it gets to freehold title, which is what the two non-conforming proponents seek,’ Greens councillor Duncan Dey told The Echo.

‘A 99-year lease is as good as freehold sale. I do not support sale of the land, especially at zero dollars. I support retention of public assets in public hands, and their utilisation for community purposes.’

‘This project is on public land and funded by public money. It should be thrown open to the public.’

However, Mayor Michael Lyon disagreed on both points.

‘Whether it’s 49 years, 100 years, or even if we sell the land, the key element is that the property will remain in use as affordable housing, with rents that are locked in at an affordable rate in perpetuity, and that is not negotiable,’ Cr Lyon said.

‘I’m 100 per cent committed to the delivery of the project on terms that are acceptable to the community.’

In response to the calls for a formal community consultation process, Cr Lyon said the matter was open for public comment now.

‘It’s on the Council agenda for all to see. If anyone would like to make a submission on this, I would invite them to sign up to speak during public access at Thursday’s meeting or to email a councillor directly,’ he said. 

The reasons put forward by Link Wentworth and Community Housing Ltd for rejecting the 49-year lease option and demanding transfer of title have been kept confidential by the Council for commercial reasons.

However, the Council report refers to ‘significant changes to the market, including escalated construction costs, interest rate rises and changes to external funding opportunities that have impacted responses to the RFP [Request for Proposal process]’.’

The matter will come before this Thursday’s Council meeting.